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NEW DELHI–After three days scouring the jungle for Maoist rebels, the 82 members of the Indian paramilitary force were leaving the mosquito-infested district without a single run-in with the enemy.

But as the security force trudged through the thick forest of Chhattisgarh, a poor state in central India, the rebels they'd been sent to root out made their move.

At about 5 a.m. local time last Tuesday, an estimated 1,000 Maoist soldiers began shooting from a nearby hilltop and the government troops scrambled for cover.

In all, 76 Indian police were killed. Newspapers called it a massacre.

The attack has left India reeling and has some critics demanding the government finally develop a strategy to deal with an insurgency which is often overshadowed by India's tense relationship with Pakistan.

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The Maoists, called Naxalites because their insurrection began in 1967 in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari, seek nothing less than the ouster of the Indian government. They demand the support of local villagers and frequently kill those who don't agree to help their efforts.

Even before this week's ambush, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Maoists represent India's most serious internal security issue.

Last year, the Maoist insurgency was responsible for 1,125 casualties, more than any other country's insurgency, said India's home affairs ministry.

According to government estimates, Maoists have a presence in at least 16 of India's 28 states, although several analysts said there probably aren't more than 150,000 Maoist supporters in the country of 1.2 billion.

It's often said that there are two Indias within this sprawling nation. One is a surging superpower with a fast-growing economy. The other, it's said, is being left behind. Members of this less fortunate India live in villages without electricity, proper sanitation or clean water.

For Maoists, this contradiction has become a cause. They say the government needs to provide a more equitable distribution of its growing wealth.

In recent months, the Maoists have grown bolder.

Last October, more than 200 Maoist rebels in Maharashtra, the state whose capital is Mumbai, attacked 45 police commandos, killing 17 of them.

But how does a ragtag band of Maoists hold in check one of the world's largest military forces?

Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi who has advised the Indian government's National Security Council, said the problem is that Indian states oversee law and order. It's not typically a federal matter.

Up until last year, states including West Bengal showed no interest in battling Naxalites, Chellaney said. Chhattisgarh, by contrast, has been aggressive in fighting the militants but lacks the proper equipment and trained forces.

Some experts warn against negotiating with Naxalites.

As the Tamil Tigers did in Sri Lanka, the Naxalists typically use ceasefires as an opportunity to rearm and reorganize against the government, said Nihar Nayak, an analyst with New Delhi's Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

"They don't want peace; they use the development issue as an excuse," Nayak said, adding the rebels have attacked passenger trains and razed local schools. "They are not doing this for the people. They won't settle for anything less than the overthrow of the government."

The Hindustan Times newspaper reported last month that Naxalites had drawn up a strategy to begin recruiting in urban India and create a network of sympathizers for public, legal and logistics support.

"It is a pressing need that we enter key industries such as transport, communications, railways, ports, power, oil and gas and defence equipment, this is crucial for our revolution," said a 129-page Maoist document seized by security forces and quoted by the Times.

So what to do?

The Maoists aren't a standing army. While they have a leader – a one-time teacher named Muppala Lakshmana Rao, whose whereabouts is a mystery – they won't face down an enemy on an open battlefield.

B. Raman, who headed the counterterrorism division of India's external intelligence agency for six years, says police should find ways to stop the flow of essentials such as rice into Maoist-controlled areas in order to "starve them."

Raman said India should make developing roads and telecommunications development in rural areas an immediate priority.

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